


Words with Friends

by Komatsu



Category: Bravely Default (Video Game) & Related Fandoms
Genre: Gen, Referenced Ringabel/Edea
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-10
Updated: 2018-06-10
Packaged: 2019-05-20 14:31:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,189
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14896323
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Komatsu/pseuds/Komatsu
Summary: Though Ringabel and Edea may have spent a week together in Eternia, nothing has changed among the group. Or has it? Agnès  decides that she must have Words with Ringabel after a fateful morning.Set in some vague future after Warmth.





	Words with Friends

Agnès stood in front of her target with her hands on her hips, staring him down. Or at least attempting to. Ringabel was several inches taller than she, and good at averting his gaze from hers. He was looking at everything but her face, even though she’d had him backed up against a wall.

“What’s this about?” he laughed nervously. He was practically wringing his hands as he pressed himself as far away from her as he could.

“You know very well,” she replied.

Just that morning she had walked in on Edea and Ringabel sleeping in the same bed. This alone wasn’t uncommon; since they had spent nearly a week alone in a cabin in Eternia, the two of them slept in the same bed quite frequently. Edea had once commented that she had since slept better with someone else next to her, and Ringabel was always happy to volunteer; his own sleeping problems were well known. Agnès had been startled the first time she woke up to find Ringabel sleeping in their room, but he and Edea had both been fully dressed. In fact, Ringabel hadn’t even changed out of his day clothes. Apparently, he hadn’t meant to fall asleep at all, but being next to Edea had rendered him so peaceful he had succumbed to slumber.

This time, however, she was quite sure that both of them had fully nude under the sheets, based on the large swatches of skin that she unfortunately glimpsed before turning around and leaving the room. She may have been a shrine maiden, but she wasn’t so sheltered that the implication was lost on her.

Cornering Edea later and demanding an explanation had cleared up the last of her confusion.

“Do I?” Ringabel asked again, the very picture of innocence.

Agnès faltered. Maybe he didn’t yet know that she’d caught them. She watched his face carefully as she continued. “This morning. In our room.”

He looked immediately guilty, grimacing slightly. A blush spread from his pale cheeks all the way to the tips of his ears and down his neck. “Ah, yes. That.”

“That.”

The man averted his gaze once more, sweeping hazel eyes out over the horizon. “I apologize for the… the scene, Agnès, I - I truly didn’t mean for you to see anything.”

“I didn’t,” she replied, shaking her head. “Not anything that I haven’t already seen, at least. No, that isn’t the issue here.”

Ringabel looked down at her startled, cocking his head. She could practically see the wheels working in his head, perhaps to ask her what exactly she had seen before that, but before he could get the words out…

“What are your intentions toward Edea?” Agnès asked, cutting him off.

“My intentions?” he squeaked.

Agnès knew she should not be deriving any pleasure from Ringabel’s discomfort, but there was something satisfying in the way that his blush spread even further, and how he clammed up like this. It was a pleasant reminder that he was just as clueless when it came to certain things as the rest of them, for all he tried to pretend otherwise.

“Edea is my dearest friend,” she replied. “If you have any… any impure notions toward her!”

She had never seen his face so red. No, perhaps just once, when they had first traversed to the desert and he had made the mistake of insisting that it was better for him to remove his outer jacket in the heat, a mistake he had come to painfully regret.

“Woah woah  _woah_ , Agnès,” he said, holding his hands up in defense. “I assure you, my intentions toward Edea are nothing but pure and - and heartfelt!” When she continued to stare stonily at him, unconvinced, he grasped her shoulders, squeezing them almost too tightly.

“Please don’t look at me so,” he all but pleaded. “You know that all I feel for Edea is love of the highest order. I would do anything to make her happy, and to see her well, and… ”

She had to stop him with a finger to his lips before she got too embarrassed on his behalf. Yes, she knew by now that his feelings of love were genuine, but she didn’t need to hear him say as much so… earnestly. Had he no shame?

“Yes, we are all well aware,” Agnès said. “What I mean to say is… please tell me that you are being considerate of  _her_  feelings as well.” Edea hadn’t seemed  _too_  embarrassed when interrogated about the incident in the bedroom, but she had also shied away from speaking about it longer than she needed to. And Edea did not shy away from many things.

He looked confused and a bit dismayed, as though she had told him that his hair had turned orange. “Of course I am! Aren’t I always - no, don’t answer that,” he decided quickly, then shook his head.  "You needn’t be worried for her, I promise. Is that what this is about?“

Agnès bit her lip, considering his answer for a moment. He looked and sounded genuine, his eyes wide, and lips slightly pouting. "If you’re quite sure,” she finally conceded. “So long as you are both being honest with each other, then I shall leave you to it.”

He breathed a sigh of relief, shoulders drooping.

“Please leave me warning next time you decide to… spend your time there in such a manner. I don’t wish to intrude upon your privacy again.”

“Of course, Agnès. Again, you have my deepest apologies. Perhaps we’ll put a sock on the door?”

Oh, that reminded her.

“A sock could work,” she replied, nodding. “Or perhaps Edea could knit something to use. There’s one other thing, Ringabel.”

“What is it?” he asked, once again smiling warmly at her, as though she were his favorite sister. She liked it when he looked so nicely, and the kindness in his eyes made her steel herself for her next statement. After she had walked in on them, her resulting confusion had ended with her wandering into the room that Ringabel usually shared with Tiz, startling the younger boy. Tiz had listened to her talk, his face growing pink as she explained exactly why she couldn’t go back to her own room, until he couldn’t take it anymore. The resulting outburst had been embarrassing, but educational. He’d asked her to pass some wisdom onto Ringabel.

Squaring her shoulders, she once again looked him dead in the eyes.

“Tiz would like to remind you to use a condom, as would I. Otherwise we will have to ban all goings-on on this ship.” She’d set Airy after them. That would do it.

“ _Agnès_!” he gasped, mouth dropping open.

There was silence for a long moment. She was sure he was going to faint.  Then…

“Yes ma'am. You have my word.”

“Good!” she patted him on the shoulder, then moved to walk away from him. He was practically wilting against the wall with mortification. “I don’t believe I would mind being Auntie Agnès, but it would be best suited until our journey is over and the world is right again.”

“ _Agnès_ …”


End file.
